Mayfield is sole dark horse in the 6A field
One of the narratives in this Class 6A football season, at least in the discussions behind the scenes, even among some coaches, was this:
There were seven excellent teams — Volcano Vista, Cleveland, Rio Rancho, La Cueva, Las Cruces, Centennial and Clovis — that gained separation.
I never quite bought into that notion completely. I have felt all along that there was an eighth team nobody gave much credence to — the Mayfield Trojans.
Mayfield was the team in August that I had pegged in this newspaper as a 6A dark horse — the only real 6A dark horse — this season. (No matter what anybody has tried to sell on social media, Clovis was not in any way, shape or form a mystery or dark-horse team that came out of nowhere.)
This really is a fascinating time in Mayfield’s storied program.
As we started this season, the Trojans were coming off what was for them an embarrassing home loss, as a 5 seed, to Cibola in last year’s first round.
The Trojans shook things up a bit on their coaching staff, trying to inject some adrenaline into a stagnant offense. Has it panned out? Not as much as Mayfield wanted, I would guess. This was a slightly more efficient offense, but not dramatically so compared to 2018. But the Trojans remained immensely brawny on defense.
While the other seven 6A quarterfinalists all feature dynamic quarterbacks and offensive diversity, Mayfield easily has the oldest-school style of anyone left in the 6A tournament: power offense, hard-hitting defense.
“That’s Mayfield football right there,” running back Matthew Riley said after the Trojans came back to beat Carlsbad 21-14 on Saturday night with an extremely physical second half. “That’s what we should have been doing the whole time.”
Three Las Cruces schools, including Mayfield, will be in the metro area on Friday night for quarterfinal matchups. Las Cruces is at
Rio Rancho, Centennial visits Cleveland and the Trojans square up with No. 1 Volcano Vista.
Mayfield has the type of approach to keep the Hawks in a lower-scoring game, which frankly is the Trojans’ only chance to beat Volcano Vista. But that is predicated on being able to move the Volcano Vista defense — no one has — and pinning that explosive Hawks offense to the sideline. And no one’s done that, either. Mayfield on Saturday won by completing only two passes, and attempting only seven. This team is built to be competitive in close games; it is not built to overcome huge deficits.
But don’t sell Mayfield short. The Trojans played Cleveland very close for three-plus quarters in Rio Rancho, and it was the Storm’s second-lowest point total (35) of the year. The Trojans also had a shot to beat Las Cruces 10 days ago going down to the wire. The Bulldawgs’ 21 points tied for their lowest total of the year.
The magic trick Mayfield coach Mike Bradley has to perform this week is convincing his group that it can stand similarly toe-to-toe with Volcano Vista.
“These guys don’t have any idea what Mayfield football is,” Bradley said, smiling. “I’m trying to teach them.”
FIRST TIME IN SIX YEARS:
The last time the largest class had an all South vs. North quarterfinal configuration was 2013, which was the last year a team from the Albuquerque metro area didn’t make it to the state final. That year produced a memorable Mayfield-Las Cruces championship game, which was arguably the most exciting big-school title game of the decade — a 27-26 Bulldawgs’ victory.
In this decade, there have been 24 North-South matchups in the quarterfinal round. The North is 16-8 in those games, by my count. Of the 80 quarterfinalists from 2010-19, 44 were from the metro area, 36 from outside.
DWINDLING RANKS:
With the losses over the weekend by Menaul and Elida, there remain just three undefeated teams in the state: Volcano Vista, Roswell and Bloomfield, all at 10-0. And hearty congrats to the co-op of Springer/Maxwell, which led most of the way in the 6-Man final against Elida before winning 29-26, a firstever blue trophy in that sport for both those schools. Elida hadn’t scored fewer than 49 points in any other game this year.